Checkpoint
by TheVeryCheesyAuthor
Summary: "If you both haven't figured it out already..." Sato scratched his head with a frown, "My theory is that every time Midoriya Izuku dies, time resets itself to September 31st."
1. Chapter 1

Aoyama wakes up with his hands in the air, and his stomach poised in position to attack. It's strange, he thinks, how realistic the dream he had. There was nothing good, or sparkling about it.

 _It was a..._

He moves through the hallways like a zombie, still clad in his sleep shorts. He ignores the looks of his classmates when he sits in the cafeteria by his friends. They're intently talking about something.

"... _Nightmare._ Midoriya-kun died and I couldn't do anything about it."

At these words, Aoyama's head immediately snaps up. Toru Hagakure was sobbing, and the sounds of water droplet hits onto the table. No one can see the invisible tears. But for once in his life, he's paying extreme attention to someone other than himself or his opponents.

As they talk, he notices that there was something eerily similar about her dream to his. He catches Rikido Sato's eye and the muscular man shakes his head. He's unaware that his mouth is open and everyone was staring at him, waiting for him to speak.

"Ah, _mademoiselle_ , what an unfortunate dream you just had! I am sure with some of Sato's tasty new macarons, you will _be comme neuf!_ "

Her crying turns into sniffles, "I would like that."

Aoyama can't help but try to shake off the feeling of dread.

* * *

"That wasn't a dream," Sato slides the baking sheet out of the oven.

The half-eaten macaron falls to the ground but no one makes a move to pick it up. The floating uniform freezes and Aoyama doesn't dare to make eye contact with either of them.

" _Que veux-tu dire par là?_ "

"English please," Sato sighs.

"What do you mean?" Aoyama's words come out in a jumble, " _I know_ my dream and Hagakure's match up, but it just might be a really weird coincidence!"

Sato shakes his head.

"S-So you're saying that the villain-ambush was real...?"

There's an uncomfortable silence that passes between the three of them.

"I saw Midoriya die the first time a few days ago. October 7th-"

"That's impossible! It's October 13th today!" Hagakure protests, and whips out her phone, "Look!"

She shows them the glowing screen of her phone.

Right below the black, bold letters of _07:25 was September 31st._

"Mademoiselle, your phone must be glitched! It says September 31st."

His palms are sweaty. It must not be good for his thin, fine French hair. He just had a perm. What if he went to go get another one. Wait, then wouldn't he not have it anymore if the time resets itself? What was he thinking about again?

"Your phone is definitely wrong," Aoyama says, his voice shakes and he doesn't know how to stop the silly tremors that wrack his hands, "Look at mine."

Both of them stare at his glowing screen, blinking owlishly.

 _07:25 September 31st_

The only noise was the sound of the second tray of sizzling, burning macarons in the forgotten oven.

"It always resets to September 31st. Today was the first time Midoriya gets killed, but I'm not sure who was the first witness. He's supposed to get hit by Katsuki's quirk," Sato's voice is rough.

"What-"

"October 7th," Sato interrupts the voice of Hagakure, "Izuku overexerts himself during training against Ectoplasm and Recovery Girl accidentally drains him of all his stamina. And then we have October 13th, yesterday's incident, which I have yet to know anything about."

"Y-You weren't with us?" Hagakure asks.

Her voice is shaking, and her knees are trembling. There was no way this was real.

"I've been in six resets so far, and in those, I've only witnessed a total of two deaths myself. There are three others, excluding yours, that I don't know about," Sato says.

Aoyama hates how Sato is handling this situation. It was as if he had already adapted to it as if it was part of a normal lifestyle. He hates how calm and constructed Sato looks and hates how weird it feels.

"We were actually going on a run," Hagakure finally speaks up, "Not sneaking out for arcade games. Aoyama and I wanted to build our endurance... So he can use his Navel Laser Beam for longer and I can hold my new ability longer. Since we saw Midoriya running the other day, we asked to join him."

"Before long, monsieur, we had reached inner city. The next thing we knew was being attacked." Aoyama shutters, "I saw Midoriya's face right before he died... I think we would've also died last night had it not been for the 'reset' you talk about."

Another moment of uncomfortable silence passes them.

"If you both haven't figured it out already..." Sato scratched his head with a frown, "My theory is that every time Midoriya Izuku dies, time resets itself to September 31st."

"All we have to do is save him from dying, right? Shouldn't be too hard."

Sato frowns.

"I wish it was that easy. Except there are probably more people a part of this, and we don't know who they are. We need to know who they are so we can figure out when and how we can prevent Midoriya from his deaths. Before we can figure it out, we can't save him from every time. Judging by how long he lived by yesterday's reset, I say that they're doing a pretty damn good job at saving him."

* * *

Todoroki couldn't help but get a sense of Déjà vu as he talked with Izuku. He felt like he had the same conversation over and over again the past few weeks. There was something off about this—

"Todoroki-kun, you alright?"

"Hm? Yeah."

 _—What was he thinking about again?_

* * *

 _while you're at it, please visit my etsy shop! it has the same shop name (TheVeryCheesyAuthor) as my username on fanfic. thanks_


	2. Chapter 2

"check _out my etsy shop! it's listed underneath the same shop name— TheVeryCheesyAuthor) as the one i currently have as my fanfic username!_

* * *

Mashirao Ojiro had not expected to wake up after seeing Midrioya die, and then have to relive September 31st, 2222 three times.

"I swear to the Illuminati gods that if it's September 31st-"

He fumbled around and grabbed his phone. He turned on the screen. Underneath the bold letters of 7:55 was the mocking letters of 'September 31st'. He let out a strangled scream.

* * *

"Ojiro. You're late."

"S-Sorry, Aizawa-sensei! I stayed up late last night and I forgot to turn on my alarm!"

Mashirao waited for his punishment: one hour of running around the training course. He didn't mind the running, but it was bad only because while everyone else got to train their ultimate moves-he had to waste precious time running.

"...Only one minute late. I suppose I can let it slide since Ectoplasm does not mind."

"W-Wait what?"

"Hurry along unless you're voluntarily going to run like Iida."

"Y-Yes, sir!"

Confused yet relieved, Ojiro scurried to his training station. Everywhere around him, were his classmates working hard at improving their fighting style. He stared in awe as Sato devoured three cakes in less than ten seconds. Rikido Sato's eyes met his he gave a small wave.

"Hey Mashirao, aren't you supposed to be doing laps?" Sato asked.

"S-Sensei let it slide since I wasn't that late!"

 _Wait, how did Rikido know I was supposed to be running?_

* * *

Today's September 31st was weird. During lunch, Aoyama was supposed to accidentally knock Koji's water over. However, it was like as if like Aoyama had been _expecting_ it. He had moved the cup out of the way prior to sitting down.

It turned out to be an even more weird day when he had caught Sato staring at him like he grew a second tail or something.

It officially became the weirdest day when Tooru came up to him and whispered; "Come to Sato's room tonight, we have cookies!"

* * *

"Do you think that Mashirao-kun knows that we know?"

"He's a smart guy, I'm sure he figured it out right after I saw him this morning."

"He could be in denial though..."

Sato piped cream into the freshly baked sponges, deep in thought. Aoyama seemed to be drooling as he stared at the little cream puffs. Tooru Hagakure was reading through her diary, using sticky notes every once in a while to bookmark her pages.

"Guys, it's kind of weird that my diary entries are all-"

A knock interrupted Tooru.

"I'll get it," Aoyama went to open the door, "Mashirao-kun! How nice of you to join us!"

The blond hair boy walked in hesitantly, his tail dragging right before him. He greeted everyone with a small wave.

"Hello," Mashirao blushed, "It smells really good in here!"

"Thanks. We know we promised you cookies but we have something better than that," Sato grinned, "Cream puffs!"

Sato handed the freshly piped cream puff to Mashirao. He took it with a small bow and bit into the soft pastry. Immediately, his tail started to wag back and forth happily. Tooru let out a small giggle and he turned red.

"This is really good! You're an amazing baker, Sato!" Mashirao said.

"Thanks!"

"Anyways," Tooru said casually, "We know that you know about the time loops."

Mashirao's fell off the chair and his eyebrows skyrocketed in shock.

"About the Illuminati Theory of September Thirty First?" Mashirao asked.

The three of them stared at Mashirao.

He stared back at them.

"Wait. What?" Tooru stifled a giggle, "The Illuminati Theory of September Thirty First?"

"The Illuminati, an American conspiracy theory, has to be behind this. Everything's done in threes, there have been three September 31st's, and there's you three, Tooru-chan is using three different colors of sticky notes, and-"

" _Non,_ non _,_ non, not the Illuminati!" Aoyama waved his hands rapidly, " _Monsieur_ , we're talking about Midoriya-kun's resets! Sato here has personally witnessed more than four resets, and this is Tooru and my first time experiencing September 31st again! Also, now there's _quatre_ of us, not _trois!_ "

"Oh," Mashirao stared at them blankly, "Oh..."

He looked at his toes in embarrassment. Now that he thought about, it didn't make sense that the Illuminati was behind the time loops. He chewed his lips hesitantly.

"I-It was a good guess though."

"Our theory is that we think that every time Midoriya Izuku dies, time resets itself to September 31st," Sato wiped his hands on his apron.

A sinking feeling rumbled in his stomach. His appetite was suddenly gone.

"H-He dies more than once?"

Mashirao didn't know if his question came out as a scream or a whisper. Watching Midoriya pass out in the showers was scary enough, and then trying to figure out why he kept waking up on the same day was more than nerve-wracking.

"Yeah, we got ambushed by a villain on October 12th..." Tooru's uniform shivered, "And Sato here has watched him die more than once."

"Oh my..."

Watching Midoriya _die more than once_ must have been traumatizing.

"How did your Midoriya die? And how did you prevent that?" Sato asked.

"From showering. I think he overexerted himself during training and then passed out in the showers. I was entering the bathroom and then I heard a crack... God there was so much blood. And M-Midoriya had- oh my god, I-I was so scared..."

 _Blood pooling and getting sucked down the drain..._

Mashirao felt his tail frazzle up as he replayed the memory in his head. Someone was rubbing soothing circles on his back. Seeing Midoriya die was bad enough, but reliving the memory had him shaking.

"T-The next thing I knew was that I woke up and it was September 31st again. So now I just wait outside of Midoriya's stall on October 3rd at 7:00."

Silence covered them like a thick blanket.

"If it makes you feel any better, _monsieur,_ " Aoyama said weakly, "We didn't know he died on October 3rd, so you must have been doing a good job preventing that accident."


	3. Chapter 3

"Alright, so this is what we've figured out so far."

Hagakure drummed her fingers against the table. Ojiro nervously flipped through the pages of his UA journal, folding the pages at random increments. Sato was busy decorating a cake, and Aoyama scribbled on index cards.

"October 3rd at 7:00; Midoriya slips while showering, and was confirmed by me. Counter: either convince him to go to sleep early or wait outside his stall," Oijiro flipped the page to another bookmark, "October 7th at 9:00; Midoriya overexerts himself during training against Ectoplasm, goes to Recovery Girl, and dies from over usage of his quirk. He dies twice by this method. This was confirmed by Sato. Counter: Have him rest instead of going to Recovery Girl, or pull him out of training early. Is this information accurate so far?"

Three nods answered him.

"October 12th at around 12:00; Aoyama and Hagakure sneak out with Midoriya to train and was ambushed, and was confirmed by both parties. Counter: don't sneak out."

At this, Aoyama and Hagakure drew their lips in a tight line. Waves of disappointment and anger coursed through both of them.

"Also, Hagakure recently found out that everything you write on your UA journal remains the same during every Reset, so that's why I started writing all of our notes in mine."

"Yeah, I started writing my diary entries on my UA journal. I have everything dated up to the last October 12th," Hagakure took hers out from her backpack, "There's not much, but this is proof that we'll at least have our work with us if we do get into another reset."

Everyone gave a small smile of relief.

"Wait. I just realized something."-Sato stopped piping and some of the icing dropped onto the counter-"I've experienced six Resets total, and there are four deaths confirmed. This means that there's two more, and there's the possibility of more deaths before I started the Resets."

"Can we just ignore that there are more deaths?" Aoyama said, "It seems like the other people have been doing a good job at preventing the Resets-"

 _Black clouded their vision._

* * *

Knocking woke Aoyama up.

"Allez-vous en!" He groaned.

The knocking grew even more fervent and he pushed himself off his bed. His alarm hadn't even gone off yet, and the sun hadn't risen from the horizons! Cursing in French, he opened the door to reveal Hagakure's floating pajamas.

"Ah, madame-"

"Did you look at the date yet."

Her voice was like ice.

"I-Is there something wrong?"

A phone was thrust into his hands. He blinked his bleary blue eyes and dropped the phone like it was hot. They both watched it clatter onto the floor, and none of them made a move to pick it up.

"S-September 31st?" Aoyama swallowed back his scream, " _How?_ It was October 2nd yesterday."

 _'04:55 September 31st'_ mockingly glowed from his feet.

"It seems like the other people have been doing a good job at preventing the Resets," Hagakure mocked, "If they did, then how can you explain that it's _September 31st?"_

"W-We should go find the others."

Still clad in his silk pajamas, the duo set off to wake Ojiro.

"That's weird though, shouldn't the person be an expert at preventing yesterday though? This doesn't make any sense," Hagakure sighed.

Aoyama knocked on the door. Seconds later, it revealed a yawning blond. He gave them a small smile.

"Why are you guys up in the middle of the night?" Oijro asked, "Weren't we just-"

Oijro's eyes snapped open in realization. They had been _just_ writing in the UA journals and discussing the Resets. It was like seconds later he woke up in his _own_ bed.

"A-Another Reset?" Oijro asked.

They grimly nodded.

"B-But it's only October 2nd..."

"Let's go find Sato."

* * *

Sato groaned when he opened the door. It wasn't like he didn't appreciate his friends dropping by once in a while, but knocking at the door at 5AM was not a good idea. Hell, the sun hadn't even risen yet.

"Do you guys need anything?"

From the floating clothes, he could tell it was one of his classmates named Tooru Hagakure. Strange. He didn't talk much to girls... And she was in her _pajamas,_ standing right in front of his room! He grunted in embarrassment when his face heated up.

And Aoyama? The sparkling french boy was standing in front of his room, also clad in his silk pajamas. Sato raised an eyebrow in surprise, he and Aoyama weren't that close.

He didn't expect Oijro to be part of that group, but they were friends after all. Maybe he brought Tooru and Aoyama because they needed help?

"Look."

To his surprise, they thrusted a phone to his face.

"What exactly am I supposed to be looking at?" Sato asked awkwardly.

"The date."

 _September 31st._

 _Maybe in another timeline,_ Rikido _Sato would have reeled back in horror._

"September 31st? What's so special?" Sato asked, "Oh no! Did I forget someone's birthday? Wait, that's not possible... Only Momo's birthday is during September! Do you guys want carrot cake?"

They stared at him with confused looks.

"If you guys don't need anything, I'll be going back to sleep now..."

He was answered with blank looks. Honestly, it was starting to scare him.

"Alright, well-"

"W-We'll take some carrot cake if you don't mind," Aoyama managed to cough out.

* * *

"Is Sato being serious?"

The trio stared at the carrot cake in front of them. Even Ojiro didn't have an appetite to stomach the delicious looking treat in front them. All three of them had their nerves running in overdrive, and a frown etched on their faces.

"What if we give him the notebook? Maybe he just has memory loss in the mornings."

"I work out with Sato in the mornings when I'm not training my tail," Oijro shook his head, "Sato memorizes every single set perfectly. There's no way he has memory loss."

"He was so confused when we were there, it was like he didn't recognize Aoyama and me!" Hagakure said.

"Maybe Resets make you lose some of your memory?" Aoyama asked.

"Makes sense..."

"Wait what if yesterday happened because the person _forgot?"_

"I don't think anyone could forget someone's death..."

The three of them fell into a silence again.

"What if you forget after a certain number of resets?" Hagakure suddenly burst out, "That would explain why yesterday's happened, or why Sato was so confused!"

"How many resets did Sato go through?"

"Seven total now," Oijro answered as he furiously flipped through his notebook.

"So what's so special about seven..." Aoyama looked at his hands, "How does seven connect to Izuku Midoriya?"


	4. Chapter 4

Aoyama could feel the questioning gazes on his back. With the provisional license exam within a week, and because he was _Yuga Aoyama,_ everyone was confused as to why he was flipping through books so furiously. On top of that, Oijro and Hagakure were right next to him and flipping through the strangest books.

"Aoyama, it's nice to see you make an effort to study, but you do know that we should be training physically instead right? After all, the provisional license exams are next week. The same goes for you two," Momo said.

"W-We're just reading books to brush up our techniques!" Hagakure said hastily, "Nothing suspicious going on here!"

Momo gave one exasperated look at the titles that they were reading. Aoyama shoved his _Counting by Sevens_ book underneath his journal. Hagakure hastily closed her thick _All Might_ history book, and Oijro tried to keep a straight face as he continued to read _Conspiracies around Seven._

"Well, don't sleep too late," She sighed.

"Good night, Momo!"

" _Bonsoir!"_

"Night."

Right after Momo left the library area, the three of them launched into a rapid-fire conversation.

"Okay, so in this book that I'm reading, named _Conspiracies around Seven_ , there was a conspiracy theory around this rapper named Tupac. He was shot on September 7th; but he survived on the 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, and officially "died" the 13th. Because of this, people named it the 7 Day Theory. In addition, the rapper's album _All Eyes on Me_ was released on February 13, 1996. Tupac "died" on September 13, 1996," Oijro said.

"Why is his album release date relevant?" Hagakure asked.

"It is quite a coincidence that the two dates are exactly 7 months apart. Also, Tupac officially died at 4:03 PM. Hour four, and minute three. If you add four plus three, then you get seven. If you're still not convinced, he was 25 years old when he officially "died". Two plus five is seven."

" _Monsieur,_ are you saying Midoriya is Tupac?"

"No, I'm just implying that maybe Tupac's situation is similar to Midoriya's," Oijro said.

"Alright, so I still have the other journal from our previous reset," Hagakure said, "Aoyama, can you get that for me?"

Aoyama reached over and nabbed the gray leather book. He flipped to the pink bookmark and presented it to Oijro.

"So Aoyama and I found out everything we could about Izuku- He was born on July 15th, and he's 16 right now. He's 166 centimeters, which is around 65 inches, or 5 foot 5 inches. He's number 18 in our student-"

"Wait. Is there anything that specifically gives a clue to the number seven?" Oijro interrupted.

"Well, other than he ranked 7th in the U.A. exam and that he was born in July... _Non non non_ , we don't have enough information," Aoyama said.

All of three had large frowns etched on their mouths. Every lead they had was either left unconfirmed or it was a dead end. Hagakure couldn't help but feel tears of frustration prick at the corners of her eyes. Looking at her friends, she saw the same defeated looks on their faces.

"Maybe... The amount of resets you go through correlates to which reset you saw Midoriya die," Hagakure said, "That kinda makes sense, right?"

At their confused look, she went on to explain her theory.

"See, maybe Sato went through seven resets before forgetting was because he saw Midoriya die on the sixth reset. That would make sense, wouldn't it?"

 _"Peut-être_..." Aoyama said.

"If you're right, then how did Midoriya forget the rest of the resets? This would only be possible if he was _watched himself die_ the first time," Oijro shuttered, "And that's really awful if you think about it- Someone must've forced himself to watch..."

Grim looks were exchanged.

"So what happens if the person preventing that day forgot? Does that mean that Midoriya will remember again? That's _plutôt bien_ if you think about it," Aoyama said.

"No. Midoriya is the type of selfless guy that would take a bullet for a fly. He'll probably over-analyze the resets," Hagakure said.

" _Vrai,_ He might even think it's a quirk and it's unlimited..." Aoyama said.

"Oijro, what are your thoughts?"

The French boy and the invisible girl turned towards their friend. He had his eyes glazed over in deep thought and fingers drumming the table rhythmically. He had a faraway look on his face and only snapped back to reality when Hagakure put a hand on his shoulder.

"What if Midoriya runs out of resets and _stays dead?_ What if he dies because of some stupid mistake that we made? What if there are villains who also witnessed the resets? What if half the class already knows? What if Midoriya himself already knows?"

They stared at Oijro in increasing alarm as he continued to ask questions.

"What if someone decides to abuse that quirk? What if that All for One person gets their hands on Midoriya-"

"Slow down and breathe, Oijro."

At this, the blond boy took a big gulp of air.

"Sorry, Aoyama, Hagakure. I have a tendency to ask childish questions when I'm feeling anxious," Oijro apologized.

"- _Pas de soucis-"_

 _"It's fine._ Anyways, I don't think we should tell anyone about this... I don't want to say this, but I'm pretty sure that there's a traitor in our class," Hagakure said.

Aoyama shot her a horrified look and Oijro's tail stiffened.

"It would make sense. I mean, Sensei's been watching us too closely lately, and there's been an increase of mind quirks near our dorms lately. If we didn't have a traitor, then we wouldn't have been ambushed during our USJ simulation or during the summer. I don't want anyone to know about Midoriya's power since they could potentially abuse it," Hagakure explained.

"Makes sense..."

"Hm..."

A blanket of uneasy silence coated them. Aoyama realized that even the two people in front of him could be potential traitors, they could be _waiting for the right moment to hand over Midoriya._ Even though he tried to squash his suspicions down, he still couldn't get rid of the troubled thoughts that were running through his head.

 _Buzz._

The three of them whipped their heads towards the sound of the noise. Aoyama's phone screen lit up and he scrambled to unlock it.

"I just got a text from an unknown number."

They watched as Aoyama's face went from confusion to terror. Hagakure scrambled to get behind him to read the text message, and Oijro worriedly looked at the phone. Hagakure's uniform uneasily shifted.

"The text message said 'Two hours till reset.'"


	5. Chapter 5

Aoyama was terrified.

The funny thing was that terrified wasn't a word he would use as much as he did before. He was scared when he found out that his favorite cheese was made by maggots and mold, and he had been scared when he woke up and his stomach started shooting lasers.

The only time he could remember being truly terrified was when he almost disintegrated his Nana with his navel laser.

Even if he knew that Midoriya Izuku would reset after dying, he still couldn't stop the tremors of terror that wracked his spine from the mere idea of death. However, a nagging feeling inside of him erupted.

He realized that before discovering Midoriya's resets, he never really had friends to stick with. Even with his sparkling persona, he attracted a lot of people but never stayed with them. Theorizing with Hagakure and Ojiro was... Nice.

"We... Should go do something about that text," Hagakure said.

"I think our best bet is just to observe Izuku."

"Yeah..."

His happy feeling suddenly turned guilty. _Izuku was in trouble and he was happy because of it?_ That was not the way heroes were supposed to think. He followed the two out of the door without a word.

* * *

Midoriya was _not_ a boring person. He somehow even made stalking for them seem like a television show.

Everything he did was fascinating and desperately fast-paced because of his need of power control in his legs. The trio watched in horror as his skin peeled off raw and blood ran down his shins as he continued to strike against Ectoplasm even after class. They shadowed him even after he went to Recovery Girl and she scolded him for being reckless.

They even followed him right into Todoroki's room, wearing Hagakure's full body invisible suits. She was naked herself, and it took more than ten minutes to convince a blushing Ojiro that it was for Midoriya's sake.

"Midoriya..."

Strangely, Todoroki had a scarf wrapped around his neck even though the weather was as hot as summer. Every inch of his skin was covered with clothing except for his head.

"Shoto, how many time do I have to tell you to call me by Izuku-"

Midoriya was suddenly cut off when a pair of soft lips landed on his. He deepened it as if it _was a normal occurrence._ The sounds of the wet tongues and lips could be heard echoing in the small room.

Ojiro blushed.

Aoyama fainted.

Hagakure cooed.

The two boys immediately broke off their tender kiss when the trio made sounds. Todoroki stared questionably at the large skid mark on the ground, Midoriya furiously blushed.

"H-Hagakure?"

Caught red-handed, Hagakure meekly smiled even though none of them could see her. However, Ojiro and Aoyama stilled, scared to make a single sound. If Todorki and Midoriya only noticed Hagakure, then it would be easier for all of them.

"H-Hey..."

"What are you doing in my room?" Todoroki asked.

The only sign that Todoroki had engaged in any sign of activity was by his slightly red lips and lidded eyes. Midoriya, on the other hand, was a blushing red mess and he tried to sink into the floor with embarrassment. Hagakure didn't bother hiding her snort of laughter.

"S-Sensei assigned me a project where I'm supposed to sneak into every person's room to test the security level out!"-Hagakure was relieved that they couldn't see her trembling form, but she was pretty sure Todoroki could sniff out fear like a dog-"You caught me, congratulations!"

Todoroki turned his deadpan face towards them.

 _Wait... Since when were Shoto Todoroki's eyes both blue?_

"OH MY GOD-"

Not a moment later three words left Hagakure's mouth did Midoriya's body collapsed.

"So invisible girl figured it out, huh? Too bad you're too late..."

Todoroki slinked towards the three teenagers with an oddly familiar grin. His bright blue eyes blinked and the room around them lit up in blue fire. He slowly peeled off the latex off of the bottom half of his face and took off his scarf with a relieved sigh. His gloves had long since been discarded.

The trio watched in gross horror as the burnt purple muscle was exposed to them, held together by staples. However, their direction was commanded on Izuku, who was slowly foaming around at the mouth.

"He's a goner," The man grinned and tapped his poison-coated lips.

And suddenly, the world turned black.

* * *

Ojiro woke up with a choked scream. Without bothering to check the time- _he already knew it was 04:40-_ he ran down to the Gym. Feeling the intervals of chill and heat blasting from the top floor, he sprinted up the stairs.

"Todoroki!"

"Yes?"

Immediately, the blasts stopped. A red and white haired boy turned around with a confused gaze. Seeing his heterochromia blue and gray eyes, Ojiro finally breathed in relief. His classmate looked at him in confusion and tiredness.

"...Just be careful, yeah?"

"I appreciate your concern, Ojiro, but I am cautious enough," Shoto Todoroki said.

"Well," Ojiro scrambled around his hyperactive brain to find an excuse, "I heard that more sleep will do you good than overexerting yourself in training! I'm planning to skip my morning workouts the next few days until the Provisional License Exam and you should too!"

"That... Is a good idea. I was planning to visit my mother tomorrow anyways. Perhaps skipping my morning routine will allow me more time and energy to spend with them," Todoroki admitted.

"No!" Ojiro yelled.

Todoroki's eyes scrunched up in confusion, "No?"

"I-I mean, maybe you should surprise them instead when you get your License! I know my parents love surprises, so maybe you should try that instead!" Ojiro said.

"I do see the logic in that. I shall take your suggestion into consideration and give it a try. Thank you, Ojiro. You are a good fellow classmate," Shoto said.

As Ojiro waited for Shoto to finish showering, he implanted one of Momo's old tracking devices in Todoroki's UA uniform pocket.

 _The only people that would know about Shoto Todoroki leaving UA to visit his family would be his family himself and members of the UA faculty. Furthermore, his family must be kept in such a remote location that the only way that Dabi would know where Rei Todoroki resided was unless one of the UA faculty or family members had ratted her location out. No- that wouldn't make sense, the UA faculty wouldn't even be able to-_

 _Wait._

 _Shoto and Dabi have such similarly shaped facial structures and eyes that we weren't able to tell them apart at first. The only thing separating between the two was just hair and eye color, along with injuries and scars. Even without their differences, they look like they could be related..._

 _Hadn't there been news that Endeavor's oldest son had died a few years ago in a car accident?_

 _Don't tell me..._

"Ojiro, thank you for your patience. I am ready to go back to the dorms now."

"S-Shoto..."

"Yes?"

"I-Is Dabi your older brother?"

* * *

 _i feel like i let too many things happen in this chapter. maybe i should've slowed down the pace but i don't know. what do ya'll think? also, should i even have romance for this story? i felt like it was fitting for shoto and deku to kiss because it would've made sense for dabi to disguise himself as shoto and coat his lips in potent poison._


End file.
